Irregularly shaped and inorganic fullerene-like MoS ₂ compounds were characterized by Resonance Raman spectroscopy using an exciting line at 633 nm. It was shown that the relative intensity of the longitudinal acoustic mode at 226 cm ⁻¹ and its overtone strongly depends on the MoS ₂ crystallite size but not on the size of the particles made of agglomerated crystallites. This technique appeared as a promising probe to characterize in situ very small crystallites that are not observed by XRD.

Nickel-cobalt bimetallic catalysts supported on high surface area graphite with different Ni:Co ratios (3:1, 2:1 and 1:1) and the monometallic Ni and Co were prepared by wetness impregnation method. The catalysts were tested in hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of guaiacol in the liquid phase at 50 bar of H₂ and 300 °C. The materials were characterized by N₂ adsorption–desorption, XRD, TEM/STEM, H₂-TPR, and CO-chemisorption to assess their properties and correlate them with the catalytic results. The activity was higher on the bimetallic catalysts and followed the trend NiCo_2:1/G ∼ NiCo_3:1/G > NiCo_1:1/G > Co/G > Ni/G. Also, selectivity results showed that Ni was more active in the hydrogenation favoring cyclohexanol production from phenol, while this was inhibited on the Co-containing catalysts. Hence, the results showed that synergy was created between Ni and Co and that their interaction, properties, and catalytic performance depend on the metals’ ratio.